Wilmington & Brunswick County, NC – Bug-N-A-Rug

Risks of Bed Bug Pesticides

In November 2012, the Center for Disease Control, using data from the National Pesticide Information, issued a formal health advisory “alerting the public to an emerging national concern regarding misuse of pesticides to treat infestations of bed bugs and other insects indoors.” Between 2006 and 2010, there were 129 significant health effects ranging from mild and serious, and one death reported from bed bug-related pesticide use, according to the centers.
While it’s probably been some time since you’ve heard much about the bed bug epidemic in this country it still persists and continues to grow rapidly. The Huffington Post recently reported that Penn Medicine issued a report stating that in Philadelphia alone the infestations have grown by 70% each year. You’d be hard pressed to find a pest management company that hasn’t dealt with a bed bug infestation in the past year, according to a recent nationwide survey.

As with anything, people will often take matters into their own hands and bed bug treatment is no exception to that. Victims of a bed bug infestation have been known to regularly use pesticides not approved for bedbugs or for indoor use — and even ones that have been banned — further raising the risks of ineffectiveness and toxic exposures. They think that just because there are products available to them in the stores that they’re safe to use around their family and pets. They couldn’t’ be more wrong. “People become desperate and will do crazy things,” said Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, a community-integrated pest management coordinator at Cornell University. “Overall, the public health effects of bedbugs have been largely overlooked.”

The Huffington Post reported that new studies indicate there are potential subtle and long-term consequences of exposures to bed bug pesticides like those homeowners are using. Issues like hormone disruption, reproductive difficulties and behavioral problems, are being linked to pesticide use in the homes.

In a study published in November, Canadian researchers found that the urine of nearly every one of 779 children studied showed evidence of recent exposure to pyrethroids, a pesticide commonly used in households and the central ingredient in bed bug control products. They are also the same pesticides to which bed bugs are becoming increasingly resistant.

Besides using toxic pesticides to fight bed bugs or causing house fires from other efforts, bed bugs are directly connected to an assortment of health concerns. Bed bugs can create anxiety, depression and lost sleep for many people who have an infestation in their homes as well as the social and financial hardships that accompany it, Gangloff-Kaufmann said. She added that sores from bed bug bites may increase the likelihood of infections, such as from superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which commonly lives on human skin. While the general consensus is that bed bugs can’t transmit disease, there are some scientists that remain unconvinced and stress how little is actually known about the insect.

At Bug-N-A-Rug we don’t use harmful pesticides to rid your home of bed bugs. Our environmentally friendly methods are thermal remediation that eradicates the problem in six hours. Thermal remediation kills the entire life cycle, from eggs to full size matured adult bed bugs. No matter where the bed bugs are hiding, the heat treatments will reach them and we guarantee it. Call us today at 910-254-9443 and we’ll come to your home and do an inspection.